Just four months after an alliance of conservative Christians was threatening a churchgoer revolt unless President Bush championed an amendment banning same-sex marriage, members say they have been surprised and disappointed by what they call a tepid response from the pews.

....

Still, the opponents of gay marriage say they are puzzling over why such a volatile cultural issue is not spurring more rank-and-file conservative Christians to rise up in support of the amendment. They are especially frustrated, they say, because opinion polls show that a large majority of voters oppose gay marriage.

"Our side is basically asleep right now," Matt Daniels, founder of the Alliance for Marriage, which helped draft the proposed amendment, said in an interview last week.

The Rev. Louis P. Sheldon, chairman of the Traditional Values Coalition, said: "I don't see any traction. The calls aren't coming in and I am not sure why."

The "traditionalists" keep talking about how the majority of the American public is "opposed" to same-sex marriage, but I think there may be a more subtle reality here:

It's isn't that most Americans are "opposed to" or "against" same-sex marriage, but rather that they simply "don't approve" of it. However, as a result of the polling questions using the same language ("Are you for or against same-sex marriage?"), the pollsters lose the nuance of the reality regarding public opinion in this matter.

As such, it should come as no surprise that there is a lukewarm response "in the pews," as the article states; Americans may not like it, but not enough to care about doing anything about it.

So let's hear it for American apathy: When it matters most, we couldn't care in the least!

3. People are'nt responding because they know it for the GOP gimmick it is.

The whole thing will be decided in the Supreme Court someday, similar to Roe v Wade. Gays will no doubt win. The Gop tactic has always been: vote for me because I hate the people you hate...but don't mind my hand in your wallet the whole time, and never mind the loss of your own rights and liberties; you need to give some of them up so we can deny them to the people we hate...just keep on hating, and leave everything else to the good old GOP!

Just because someone is a Christian does'nt mean they are necessarily stupid, although there are clearly many among them who have stopped thinking...much easier to simply BELIEVE. Maybe they are finally catching on.

conservative people to find that they might not approve of gay marriage but they have a <insert here: niece, two guys that are clients, the "boys" that bought the house next door, daughter and her partner,etc.> that are gay and "they are just the nicest people" and that what the "Traditional Values" proponents are saying is just mean. They are seeing a disconnect between the spewed hate and the local people they know and like.

6. If this isn't working, they can try pushing Mars colonization again

"...opponents of gay marriage say they are puzzling over why such a volatile cultural issue is not spurring more rank-and-file conservative Christians to rise up in support of the amendment"

Uh, maybe because many Christians, despite their own personal failings, really believe it is wrong to "remove the mote from your brother's eye when there is a beam in your own" and remember, in good faith, from time to time, the warning "judge not lest you be judged" ... ?

Or, because (duh!) "saving traditional marriage" really has nothing to do with a few gay folks: "saving traditional marriage" would really mean ending adultery and divorce, and the rightwing (for some mysterious reason) doesn't want to call for a constitutional amendment against either of those ... ?

Chimpy and Co. were really hoping that they could ride this issue into re-election as a distraction from Iraq and the economy (which is not recovering--the job creation figures are bogus).

What they, and the primitives pushing the issue, fail to realize, is that they're far behind the mainstream, and even the relatively conservative fringes. Far enough that the whole thing could wind up working against them--now THAT would be sweet!

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